⮜ Go back to Fun Zone

VVVVVV, pronounced however you want it to be, is a 2010 platformer by Terry Cavanagh. It's on a platter of platforms; PC, mobile (i think iOS but maybe theres an android release), 3DS, PS Vita, the Switch, and probably one I missed. I've played through it numerous times, 100%'d it dozens of times over, played a plethora of custom levels, and made a few of my own. I've become an aficionado (I had to look up how to spell this) of all things VVVVVV, or V6. Or so I tell myself, and tell you right now.

This game has taken a major hold of me. It's been somewhat prevelant in parts of my life; I've considered naming myself Viridian after the game's protagonist. The scrolling background gif is extrapolated from VVVVVV's title screen! Which was extrapolated first by Ally of glaceon.co, which I re-did because I wanted a higher-quality image to work with.

If the title, my many many playthroughs, and rambling haven't told you already, I love this game to bits. And so did a 7-ish year old redpenguiin on her 3DS! And now you get to hear all about it! As I'm writing the page, I'm seeing the paragraphs get longer and longer. I hope that doesn't discourage you from reading my thoughts on it, though! It won't be too bad, I promise!

I'm just gonna give a rough outline of what there is to see in VVVVVV! Stick around, it won't take long.

Spoiler alert for the entire story: The game opens with Captain Viridian (the light-blue one) steering the spaceship D.S.S. Souleye (Named after the composer of the game's soundtrack), when suddenly things go awry. The entire ship's crew teleports, but they all are cast away in different locations! Viridian has to find all of the crew, and a way to fix the ship and get back home! The story's not too deep, but it doesn't really need to be.

Pictured: First cutscene of the game.

At that point forward, the meat of the game comes into full force; tough-as-nails platforming. I have to be honest with you, I don't find the platforming all too hard, but I whole-heartedly believe that's a decade and counting's worth of experience with this game. I can't put myself into the shoes of a new player at this point, so I'm just taking other people's word for it.

You're quickly introduced to the game's main gimmick: instead of jumping, Viridian flips gravity. This change makes the gameplay feel quite distinct from other platformers in my eyes, and more well tuned than other platformers that tried the gimmick later on; though again, that last part might just be a decade's worth of getting used to the controls.

Each area you encounter after the game's tutorial-ish beginning area has a unique gimmick attached to it. Throughout the game, there are optional challenges to get "trinkets". There are 20 trinkets in total, and collecting them all does something special. We're creeping into actual spoiler territory on that front, so I'll leave that description there.

And that wraps up just about all there is to see for VVVVVV, except for custom levels and I'm gonna fuckin' get to that. It takes me around 30 minutes to blast through the game start to finish, about an hour to crank through the entire experience (would be way longer if I didn't have perfect muscle memory for Doing Things the Hard Way), and a steam review says you can beat it in under 2 hours and refund it easily, but that feels extremely rude and would be even ruder if Terry was looking to still make money off of the game (not saying he isn't, but the source code has been released on GitHub for the game's 10th anniversary). You know the drill though, decade of experience, yada yada, your mileage may vary.

If after my rambling you're interested in the game, I beg you to give it a try. Nostalgia aside, it wouldn't be my all-time favorite if it wasn't a downright solid platformer.

As I've mentioned several times, I've been on the VVVVVV grind since I was 7-years old. First playing on 3DS and then mainly on PC, the game has had a lot of time to roll around in my mind and allow me to gather my thoughts and opinions about it. The short of it is that it's a charming game that has it's flaws; if that's what you're looking for in this section, feel free to skip ahead. The long answer goes a little something like this;

The Good: What makes VVVVVV stand up to the test of time for me that isn't just nostalgia is its enjoyableness. I'm not going to lie and say that it's the most charming platformer I've played, I'm working through Super Mario Wonder right now, but it's certaintly up there. The pixel-art graphics have a distinct flavor that sets it apart from other pixel-art games, for me. It uses the Commodore 64's palette as a base palette for all of the graphics in the game, and specifically the way that the entities (the player and moving enemies) look are particularly distinct.

The game's map is permanently embedded in my memory, and it makes it a fantastic game to stroll around through casually. Wee-lad me would usually fill out the minimap completely at the end of each playthrough. As I played through the game more, I expectedly got more skilled at it, allowing a new way of play; speedrunning. I'm still not great at speedrunning, but as mentioned I can crank through the game fairly quickly. The challenges don't end for me there, though; I have yet to complete the game in No Death Mode, which as the name suggests is an entire run through of the game without checkpoints. Once I beat the game deathless, that's when I officially become a badass.

In all honesty, I think the community of this game elevates it to the level it is for me. The base game has plenty of stuff, but the addition of player-made levels, and the ability to make and import new ones on the PC version is such a delight. It offers other experiences if you're not feeling the main game- and they don't even have to be platformer levels! Every custom level included in the base game are platforming based except for one, but many talented people have made primarily story-based levels which are a nice change of pace.

The community has done a great job of maintaining the game as well; since its source code has been released, people have been making improvements to the game left and right. Notable improvements I can think of are 60fps, various graphics settings and accessibility improvements, and translating the game into different languages. 60fps doesn't sound as big of a deal until I see just how much more smooth it was than what I was used to. Graphics and accessibility settings are just really nice to have. While I don't speak any language other than English other than Toki Pona, which isn't included, it's still a joy to see the game accessible to non-English speakers. It's even available in Esperanto, which I'm sure is cool!

The Bad: VVVVVV is absolutely not perfect. Not even my rose-tinted glasses can convince me as such. I know I said that the base game isn't lacking in content, and I whole-heartedly believe that's true, but it's certaintly lighter than other games in the genre, like Celeste for example. I know the comparatively lesser amount of content is a problem point for many a steam reviewer as well. I would say that a completely fresh player couldn't breeze through the game fast enough to get it done under 2 hours, but some people do say that. Again, likely that your mileage will vary.

I've personally gotten used to and absolutely adore the controls, but for new players especially they can be really slippery, and almost seemingly random. Viridian tends to randomly decide whether to slip a little when a key is released, or to stop on a dime, usually when the key is only tapped. I wouldn't say it's a ruining experience, nor would I say I've seen many complaints about it, but it does feel like a slight sore spot worth pointing out.

I have a slight feeling that VVVVVV can evoke a slight era of the unfun type of precision platforming. I personally haven't noticed it in a long, long time in the base game or the included custom levels, so I can't say for sure. Again, your mileage and opinions may vary; I believe I read sometime in the long past that the precision was too much for some. Admittedly, I've kinda just included this point because I'm grasping at straws to think of anything negative to say; maybe it's better that way.

I didn't really intend for this to become kinda game-review-y. I just wanted to elaborate on why this game means so much to me. I think I've done a fine enough job so far, but before I wrap up let me talk more personal and nostalgia-based reasons why I like VVVVVV.

As one of the few 3DS games I owned, and one of a medium-sized pile of games at all, I played this game to death as a kid. Anytime I had my 3DS with me, I would likely be playing VVVVVV with it. I have an officer drawer's worth of memories of me playing VVVVVV in various locations. At the park, in the car, in the basement, in a trailer, in my bedroom, and probably others.

It probably comes as no surprise that the games I played back then, primary platformers, affected my tastes today. My favorite game genre is platformers, and I think that's in no small part to VVVVVV. There are other games I cherish, of course, but VVVVVV's amazing-for-what-it-is/was-meant-to-be 3DS port as well as being a really solid game pushed it into the #1 spot in my heart.

Eventually I would get the game on PC and cherish it all over again. I'd introduce myself to VVVVVV's Discord community and hang around there. As mentioned prior, I loved the game so much I considered naming myself after Viridian. That name's probably still on the table, in all honesty.

At the end of the day, I find it hard to say exactly what about VVVVVV makes me love it so. It's a difficult feeling, or reason, or whatever it is to put into words. That's a little disappointing; I wrote this in part to put it into words. But I just do, and maybe that's all the reason I need.

As for the article and getting to the custom levels...I'll save it for another day. And when I come to it, I'll write it or link to it here.

Hope you enjoyed my little writing! -red

⮜ Go back to Fun Zone